Mexican Revolution/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A man, Tim, is shown reading a book while lounging in a hammock. Nearby, a robot, Moby, uses a hoe in a garden. Moby is wearing a hat. He looks unhappy. Three other robots are working with him. MOBY: Beep. The camera focuses on Tim. TIM: No, you guys are doing just fine on your own! Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Hey Tim & Moby, what caused the Mexican Revolution? Thanks, Miniman. The scene shifts back to Tim in the hammock. TIM: The Mexican Revolution, which began in 1910, started out as an armed uprising against a ruthless dictator. MOBY: Beep. A glob of dirt lands on Tim's shoulder. TIM: I am not a dictator! The image changes to a man in a fancy military uniform. TIM: The real dictator of the Mexican Revolution was President Porfirio Díaz, a former military general. Moby stands next to Tim, who is still in the hammock. . TIM: In 1876, he overthrew Mexico's democratically-elected president. Díaz declared himself president, and over the next 35 years, he actually did a lot of positive things for the country. Under his rule, Mexico went through a period of modernization and economic expansion. An animation shows a map of Mexico. Trains in various locations around the country pop up, followed by mining equipment. TIM: New real roads were built, industries grew, and foreign investments increased, especially from the United States. An animation shows several bags of money on the map. TIM: Mexico also had its first stable government, with strong local governors and rural police forces to keep order. But along with the good came a lot of bad. For one thing, all the power and wealth was concentrated in the hands of the small ruling class, while most people lived in poverty. An animation shows men bending over and working in a field. Watching over them is a sternfaced man holding a gun. TIM: The farmers and laborers of this peasant class had no land and were forced to work like slaves for the rich owners of the haciendas, or plantations. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, they got a pretty raw deal. As the gap between rich and poor grew, Díaz became more dictatorial. A sign appears on screen with the words "no re-election" in Spanish written on it. TIM: Early in his presidency, he supported a "no re-election" policy, which limited presidents to one term in office. But Díaz ignored his own policy and kept running for re-election. The sign transforms from "no re-election" to "re-election. TIM: He used the police to bully people for him, and when that wasn't enough, he just rigged the elections so that he won every time! An image of a bearded man wearing a formal suit appears. TIM: A growing group of political reformers, led by Francisco I. Madero, began to speak out against Díaz. In 1910, Madero ran against Díaz as the candidate of the Anti-Reelectionist Party. He had a ton of popular support, and when Díaz realized that Madero might actually win the election, he had him thrown in jail! An animation shows jail bars descending over Madero's image. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You guessed it: Díaz rigged the election and declared himself the winner. An animation shows a man's hand writing on paper with a quill pen. TIM: Madero escaped from prison and fled to Texas, where he called for an armed uprising against Díaz. An image of two rows of four men, armed with rifles with bayonets, appears on screen. TIM: And with that, the Mexican Revolution began! As fighting raged over the next few months, some of the most famous folk heroes in Mexican history began to make their mark. Pascual Orozco and Francisco "Pancho" Villa led the revolutionary forces in the north, while Emiliano Zapata led the charge in the south. As Tim talks, a chess piece of Pascual Orozco appears on screen followed by one of Pancho Villa, and then Emiliano Zapata. TIM: Díaz didn't stand a chance. By 1911, his army was defeated, and he fled to France. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Actually, the revolution was nowhere near finished. An image of Madero appears onscreen, followed by images of Zapata, Orozco, and Villa. TIM: Even though Madero was elected president, Zapata, Orozco, and Villa complained that he was working too slowly to reform the old system. Madero's statuette appears onscreen and is soon joined by one labeled General Victoriano Huerta. TIM: Then, in 1913, Madero's own army commander, General Victoriano Huerta, overthrew him. Huerta' statuette knocks Madero's out of the picture. TIM: Madero was arrested and killed, and Huerta formed a military dictatorship. But Huerta had his own share of enemies, including the revolutionary leader Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón, who joined forces with Villa and Zapata to overthrow Huerta in 1914. As Tim talks, statuettes of Carranza, Obregón, Villa, and Zapata appear and knock Huerta's statuette out of the scene. TIM: Carranza took charge and organized a constitutional convention that created the Constitution of 1917, which is still in effect today! An image of Carranza appears. TIM: Carranza was then elected president, but Villa and Zapata weren't happy with him either and they rebelled. Images of Villa and Zapata appear to either side of Carranza. TIM: After several more years of bloody battles, Zapata was assassinated by one of Carranza's officers. An animation shows statuettes of Zapata and Carranza with four chess pieces. One of the chess pieces knocks Zapata out of the scene. TIM: Because Zapata was so popular with the people, Carranza became a hated man and was eventually assassinated himself. An animation shows the chess piece that knocked Zapata out of the scene returning and it knocks Carranza out of the scene. TIM: With the election of 1920, Obregón won the presidency, and the fighting finally came to an end. Obregón's image appears as the chess pieces fade away. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, all that violence does seem kind of senseless. But believe it or not, something good did come from it. Three workers are shown bending down in a field, picking crops. TIM: The people who suffered the most during and before the war – the peasants – finally got what they were fighting for: their own land! The peasants are shown smiling and standing with their arms up. Each one is on a plot of land marked with a border. TIM: The new constitution created a program called the ejido, which redistributed a lot of the hacienda land to those who actually worked it. Ejidos are still in place today – in fact, they make up almost half of Mexico's total farmland! So you could say that the people were the true winners of the Mexican Revolution. Three robot workers appear onscreen. One holds a shovel and one holds a pitchfork. WORKERS: Beep. TIM: Revolution? After all I've done for you ingrates? MOBY: Beep. TIM: What do you mean, like what? I, um, I bought you those snazzy hats. Moby appears in close-up. He is shown using a sharp instrument to slice something. TIM: Ow. My hammock.Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts